


White Lies

by thejilyship



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Female James Potter, Roommates, fem!James - Freeform, fem!Jily, modern muggle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:52:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29763375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thejilyship/pseuds/thejilyship
Summary: In a world where any lie you tell your soulmate appears written on their skin, people have a choice to make. Do you lie to new people you meet to find out if it's them, or do you try to live your life without waiting for something that might never happen.Lily Evans doesn't ever lie.Until she does.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 15
Kudos: 61
Collections: Fem! Jily





	White Lies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theroomofreq](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theroomofreq/gifts).



> It's the last day of fem!jily February! Thanks to everyone who participated! I've loved reading all the great fics you have all made!   
> A special thanks to theroomofreq for the prompt! I didn't mean to wait this long to post it lol

Lily’s new roommate was hardly ever in their flat. 

She had moved in rather quickly about a month ago, and when they met, Lily had been excited about the prospect of a new friend. But after that first day, where three rather good-looking men had helped her move all her things into the flat, Lily had hardly seen Jamie. 

She played a sport, but Lily couldn’t figure out what it was. Maybe gymnastics? She had a large duffle bag that she was always toting back and forth, and she wore a lot of spandex. Not that that meant anything, lots of people wore a lot of spandex and didn’t play a sport. Lily wore a lot of spandex and she didn’t even exercise most of the time. Maybe she only thought Jamie was a gymnast because of the duffle bag. She felt like she’d seen gymnasts carry around bags like that. Also, Jamie had some really, _really_ nice thighs. Very... _powerful_ looking. 

It was like a game for Lily, trying to figure out anything about her roommate. Mary said that she was spending a bit too much time thinking about Jamie, and while Lily didn’t disagree, she didn’t really think there was anything she could do about it. Her mind seemed to wonder back to her elusive roommate whenever she had a spare moment. There was something about her that had captivated Lily, even if she didn’t know her yet.

Lily was spending her Wednesday night in her room, finishing an essay for her history class and wishing that she’d done it last week. It was due in only a few hours now, and she was stuck looking up sources simply for the sake of having them in her bibliography. 

She heard the front door open and looked up from her computer. It was almost eight, far too early for Jamie to have been back for the night. Perhaps she’d forgotten something. 

Lily heard the tell-tale sound of Jamie dropping her bag to the floor next to the door and then footsteps sounded past her door and Jamie’s door closed. 

Lily was curious, but she did have a deadline on this paper, so she went back at it. She was close to being done with it now, only one more page to type up. 

Jamie’s door opened and then she was standing in Lily’s doorway. 

“Evening,” Jamie said with a smile that showcased her dimples. Her short hair was being pulled away from her face with a headband that had some of the curls rebelliously sticking up into the air, and she was wearing pajamas. Lily had never seen her in pajamas. 

“Evening,” Lily offered her a smile. “What are you doing here so early?” 

Jamie raised her shoulders and then shook her head. “I have been very busy these last couple of weeks, but our show is finally over so I’ll have a bit more free-time.” 

“Your show?” 

“Yeah, I’m a dancer.” 

“A dancer,” Lily nodded, because that made sense. “I had guessed you were a gymnast.” 

Jamie laughed as she pushed her glasses up her nose, her dimples still puckered at the points of her smile. “I did do that for a spell as well, so it was a good guess.” 

“What kind of show?” 

“ _The Sleeping Beauty._ ” 

“You’re a ballet dancer? See, that I wouldn’t have guessed.” 

“No? Why not?” 

“I don’t know. I suppose I know almost nothing about you, but I just wouldn’t have guessed that you were a ballerina.” 

“Mum started me in lessons when I was three. Said I needed something to help me focus all my extra energy. Luckily for the both of us, I fell in love with it.” 

Lily smiled and then glanced at the clock. It was just after eight now. She tapped her keyboard. 

“I didn’t come over here to chat about my dancing though. I was gonna ask if you already ate dinner. I’m starved and was going to order in from that Ethiopian place down the street.” 

Lily had eaten already, but she also wanted to get to know her roommate, so nonchalantly she shrugged, “I haven’t eaten yet.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt her heartrate start to rise and she wished that she could suck them back in. 

“Awesome. I’ll order and then we can eat together.” 

“That sounds great,” Lily bit the tip of her tongue as she watched Jamie spin and leave her doorway. 

Lily turned back to her screen and stared at it without seeing the words she had been typing. 

She had just lied to Jamie. She could have said a hundred different things that would have been truthful and would have resulted in them eating together, but instead she’d lied and now her stomach was in knots. 

Lily didn’t lie to people. Some people chose to lie to every new person that they met, to see if they had found their soulmate or not, but Lily didn’t want to find her soulmate on accident, or through deceit. So she never lied. 

She also didn’t want to spend her life anxiously waiting for something that might not happen. Not everyone found their soulmate, and so Lily tried not to think about it. If she found them, that would be great, but she could be happy without them too. Her parents had never found their soulmates, and they were more in love than most. Choosing to love one another without any sign of destiny was brave and courageous and Lily would be happy living a life like her parents. 

Things got a bit slippery for her on occasion. Her best friend Mary had found her soulmate when she was only nine years old. A boy named Reginald who Lily spent a lot of time being jealous of. She hadn’t been ready to share Mary when they were that young. 

And now, she had just casually lied to Jamie. It had just slipped out, even though she made a point to _never_ lie to anyone. 

It wasn’t a big deal, she knew that it wasn’t. It was a white lie really, maybe it didn’t even count as a real one. She had eaten already, but that was hours ago, and she did want more food. And technically, everyone had already eaten something at any point, right? 

She might have been grasping, but it was lowering her heartbeat. 

She took a few deep breaths to calm herself, and then went back to her paper. She was determined to finish it before the food got here so she could spend some time getting to know her roommate who she was already slightly obsessed with. 

oOo 

Jamie to The Boiiiiis (And Jamie): UMMMM 

Jamie: I NEED HELP 

Remus: Is something wrong? 

Peter: Should we come over?? 

Peter: Where are you? 

Sirius: Stop overreacting 

Jamie: THERE IS A LIE ON MY ARM RN 

Peter: WHAT? 

Sirius: ???!??!?!?!?!?!?? 

Remus: Are you joking? 

Sirius: WHO LIED TO YOU? 

Jamie: MY ROOMMATE! I GOT HOME AND ASKED HER IF SHE ATE DINNER YET AND SHE SAID NO BUT SHE MUST HAVE BECAUSE MY ARM NOW SAYS 

Jamie: *sent photo attachment* 

Sirius: AHHHHH 

Peter: I CAN’T BELIVE YOU FOUND YOUR SOULMATE 

Remus: Lily, your roommate, is your soulmate? 

Jamie: WHAT THE HELL DO I DO NOW? 

Sirius: Fuck if I know. 

Peter: ^ 

Remus: Probably just have dinner with her, right? Get to know her. You said the other day that you’ve barely spoken six words to her. 

Peter: ^ 

Sirius: listening to Remus is usually a good bet 

Peter: He does seem to know things 

Remus: You are the only group of people that think saying ‘get to know your soulmate’ is groundbreaking advice 

Jamie: Yes. Sirius and Peter are dumb shits, but DO I TELL HER? Should I lie to her so she can find out on her own? Also, how long does this mark stay on my arm? 

Remus: That one is up to you. 

Remus: Also I have no idea how long it’ll stay there 

Sirius: If you keep it from her for too long then it’s kind of like a lie. Don’t tell her and see if it eventually shows up on her arm. 

Peter: That sounds like a fun plan 

Jamie: Remus, you are my only friend right now. 

Remus: I get it. 

Sirius: Fuck off, both of you 

Peter: Don’t be mean to me 

_Jamie changed the group chat to “Jamie owes Remus strudel and chocolate”_

_Peter changed the group chat to “Sirius and Pete don't even like strudel”_

Jamie: Tiresome, Pete. 

OOo 

Lily finished her essay and sent it in. Perhaps she didn’t spend as much time editing it as she normally would have, but she was pretty sure that it was worth maybe three percent of her overall grade and Jamie had just called from the kitchen to tell her that the food had arrived. 

She stood up and looked around her room as though she was forgetting something that she would need to bring with her to the kitchen. She shook her head and walked out of her room. 

She was excited to have dinner with Jamie, not nervous. The nerves were just left over because she’d lied. 

Jamie was in the kitchen, piling food onto a plate. “I didn’t know what you’d want, so I’ll let you make your own plate.” 

“It all smells amazing.” Lily stepped up to the counter and looked into all the different containers. “You got a little of everything, didn’t you?” 

“I might have.” Jamie nodded and then picked up her plate and moved to the couch. 

“Okay, so this sounds ridiculous, but I did already have dinner. I don’t know why I told you that I didn’t. I still want to eat with you, but I shouldn’t have lied.” 

“Oh?” Jamie didn’t sound surprised. She didn’t really sound anything, so Lily turned to look at her, but Jamie’s back was to her. “That’s fine.” 

“I know it’s not a big lie, but I try not to lie to people, ya know?” 

“Right.” Her hair bobbed back and forth. “Some people go the opposite route.” 

“Do you go the opposite route?” Lily asked, still talking to the back of Jamie’s head.

Jamie was quiet while Lily finished putting her plate together. She made it all the way to the couch before Jamie said anything. “I don’t really go one way or the other. Sometimes I lie, so I don’t start to hope for something impossible.” 

Lily tilted her head to the side and looked over Jamie. “You don’t want to date someone who isn’t your soulmate?” 

“I’ve dated people before, but I don’t want to hope that someone could be my soulmate only to find out that they’re not.” She shrugged and then stuffed her mouth full of food. 

“Sorry, we don’t have to talk about this. Soulmate business is pretty personal for a-“ Lily stopped abruptly, realizing that she had almost just suggested that this was a ‘first date.’ She cleared her throat, “Pretty personal, and we don’t know each other that well yet. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.” 

Jamie looked at her with wide eyes, eyes that were so full of color and concern. She put a hand on Lily’s knee and shook her head quickly. “You are not making me uncomfortable. Something happened recently and I’m not sure how to handle it.” 

“Recently?” Lily quirked a brow. “Do you mean since you stopped by my room a little while ago? Because you seemed fine then.” 

Jamie pressed her lips together and stared at her plate. “I was fine then. And I’m fine now too, I’m just… adjusting, I suppose.” 

“I’m not trying to pry.” 

“You are a little,” Jamie grinned at her. “But I am acting strange, so I can’t blame you.” She tugged on her sleeve, pulling it down so it was covering half of her hand. Had she been wearing a sweatshirt before? Lily remembered seeing her shoulders when she’d stopped in her doorway. “But I can pull myself together. What were you working on earlier?” 

She did seem more relaxed with this topic, so Lily allowed her to keep her secrets, and told her about the history paper, and then about the class itself. How she thought it was really interesting even though it was a required class that she hadn’t been looking forward to. 

And that led to Jamie talking about her sociology class that she hadn’t been looking forward to, but ended up loving. 

Eventually they stopped talking about school and started talking about their friends and families. Lily learned that one of the boys that had helped her move in was her brother, and the other two were ‘as good as.’ 

Lily told Jamie about Mary and Reggie and then she got up to get out the ice cream. Jamie got up to put the rest of the food away, saying how she’d invite her brothers over soon to eat the rest of it. 

Lily was so glad that she’d managed to finish her essay before she came out here, because now that she was out here talking to Jamie, she didn’t think that she would have been able to tear herself away to go and do more homework. 

Jamie was magnetic. 

“Do you have more homework to do?” Jamie asked, making Lily think that she might be able to read her mind just a little. 

“I finished my essay before I came out here and that was all I was planning on doing tonight. You?” She picked up her bowl of ice cream, hiding the fact that she was crossing her fingers. 

Jamie looked at Lily for a moment, looking as if she was debating something much more serious than whether or not she had homework to get done. 

“I don’t think that I’d be able to get anything done tonight. I’m too distracted now. ” 

It kind of sounded like Jamie was flirting, and it wasn’t the first time that Lily had thought that, but while her words were flirty, her tone was careful, kind of how it had been when Lily had first come out for dinner. Every word seemed to have been weighed and measured before it came out of her mouth. 

“So,” Lily bit the tip of her tongue and crossed her arms over her chest. “What should we do now?” 

“Do you wanna watch a movie?” Jamie asked, pulling her headband off only to bury her hand in her thick curls. 

Lily reached out and took a bite of her ice cream. “Yeah. Did you have something in mind?” 

“There is a lot on my mind.” Jamie put her headband on the counter and then walked back toward the couch. “What are you in the mood for? Comedy? Action? Crying?” 

Lily took another bite of her ice cream and wondered if she had said something that was making Jamie act funny again. She’s seemed completely at ease when she’d come to her room, but ever since Lily had come out for food, Jamie had been a little weird. 

_Something happened recently._

Lily froze with her lips pressed together, her chocolate ice cream slowly melting on her tongue. 

_I’m not sure how to handle it._

Something had happened in the time it took for their food to arrive. 

She’d been acting strange since… since Lily had lied to her. 

She was staring at Jamie now, so she could see the girl's lips moving, she knew that she was talking to Lily, but she couldn't hear her. All she could hear was the blood rushing to her head, making everything sound like she was underwater. 

Lily had lied to her. That had been the thing that happened. The thing that Jamie wasn’t sure how to handle. 

“I hate chocolate ice cream.” Lily said. Some part of her brain knew that she had just interrupted Jamie, but the much larger part of her brain was freaking out. 

Jamie looked at her with wide eyes. Her hand was holding the remote out toward the tv, and it slowly lowered to her lap. “Okay. You don’t have to eat it.” 

And she looked so innocent, even as she set the remote down to scratch at her arm. Was it uncomfortable when the lie etched itself into your skin? 

Jamie saw Lily’s eyes fixed on her arm, and she tugged at her sleeve again. Lily had seen her do that earlier, when they had been talking about soulmates. 

“Were you going to tell me?” She asked quietly. 

Jamie’s shoulders dropped. “I didn’t know if you’d want me to. You came out here and said that you didn’t mean to lie, so then I felt like I had seen something I shouldn’t have, and then I thought that it was probably best to get to know you a little bit first- but I was also worried that not telling you would be considered a lie because my brother put the idea into my head that keeping it from you for too long would be a lie-” 

“Jamie,” Lily left her ice cream bowl on the counter and started toward the couch. “Jamie, I’m not mad, I didn’t mean to phrase it like that.” It had come out a lot more accusatory than Lily had meant it to. “I just-” But how was she meant to end that? She was just what? She was _just_ nothing. Her brain was firing a million different thoughts at her, all at once. 

She’d found her. She’d found her soulmate. That seemed both entirely unreal, and as though it made perfect sense all at once. She’d found Jamie, the first person that she’d accidentally lied to and it was her soulmate. 

That tug in her belly she felt every time she’d heard Jamie come back to the flat after midnight, the pull to follow her when she left before eight in the morning, there was a reason for it now. Her soulmate had been living with her for almost a month and tonight was the first chance they’d had to talk for more than a minute or two. This was the first time since she’d met Jamie that a part of her felt at rest, that part of her that had been searching for something subconsciously was quiet and Lily knew why now. 

She climbed over the back of the couch and crouched next to Jamie, wrapping her arms around her legs as she stared at her. She looked over her face carefully, taking in her wide hazel eyes that were an explosion of color, the loose ringlets that fell into Jamie’s face whenever she wasn’t pushing them back, the dimples that appeared both when she was smiling and when she was pressing her lips together in thought. She looked at the soft curve of her lips, the freckles on her neck, the slope of her shoulder and then she reached out and took Jamie’s hand, carefully wrapping her fingers around Jamie’s as she gripped the end of her sleeve and pulled it up her arm. 

And there, in something that looked very much like Lily’s handwriting, were the words, _“I hate chocolate ice cream.”_

It was real. This was really happening. Jamie was really her soulmate. 

Lily had found her. 

Lily looked back up at Jamie, the start of a grin on her face and Jamie relaxed when she saw it, and then she was grinning back at Lily as well.


End file.
